Journey

by: Bally Midway

Publication date: 1983

Journey is an arcade game released by Bally Midway in 1983, following the success of the albums Escape and Frontiers by the rock band Journey. Bally/Midway decided to ride this wave of popularity and created an arcade game based on the band. The release was intended to coincide with a US tour by the band. This game features digitized photographs of the members of the band at the time of release: Steve Perry, Neal Schon, Steve Smith, Jonathan Cain and Ross Valory. Gameplay The objective of Journey is to reunite the members of the band with their instruments (and singer Steve Perry with his microphone). Each instrument is located on a different planet, and the musician must first reach the instrument, then make it back to the band's ship without running into an obstacle. Each musician's stage presents a different challenge. Once all of the instruments have been collected, the band performs a concert while the player controls Herbie, a bouncer whose job is to prevent fans from rushing the stage. Once a fan sneaks past the bouncer, the crowd steals the band's instruments, and the player must reacquire the instruments again in harder versions of the previous planet challenges. The game continues in this fashion until the player has lost all of his or her lives. Journey features digitized photographs of each band member's head (placed on a cartoon body), as well as a looping excerpt from the band's hit song "Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)", played by a cassette player inside the cabinet.

Released
1983
Platform
Arcade
Published by
Bally Midway Mfg Co.

Interface
Direct control
Setting
Fantasy
Visual
Fixed / flip-screen
Gameplay
Mini-games, Shooter
Perspective
3rd-person (Other)
Genre
Action
Misc
Licensed

Description

Help the five band member of the popular music group Journey find their instruments in order to perform a concert. The playable characters have large black-and-white digitized heads of the band on animated bodies. They ride on a scarab (their recently proclaimed band logo) vehicle to five different selectable planets where one member will play a mini-game to retrieve their instrument and also return to the vehicle.

Steve Perry starts at top of screen going through a maze of swinging turnstiles without touching them to get his microphone at bottom. Then he shoots solid rows of passing turnstiles to get back to the top.
Neal Schon uses a jetpack to navigate a cavern system to get his guitar at bottom, then must come back up while shooting rockets that fly horizontally in his path.
Steve Smith must jump on 8 moving drums at least once to turn their color blue. Jumping on one twice will make it disappear. Once done, he takes control of his drum set at top of screen and shoots at symbols moving upward until reaching the bottom.
Jonathan Cain must walk down slanted platforms (like in Donkey Kong) while jumping over raised moving keys. Once at bottom, he takes control of his piano shooting horizontally at vertical lines of blobs which converge towards the center.
Ross Valory jumps on elevating blocks that rise the more you stay on them. Vault from one to another until you reach his bass at the top. Then get to the bottom while firing down at the blocks as turrets rise from their tops and fire circular discs at you. Blocks that are totally shot away will eventually regenerate.

Once all five planets games are completed, there is a bonus stage where Journey is playing the song Separate Ways from their current album. You control Herbie Herbert, their tour manage, as he blocks with his body three entrance doors under the stage from fans that rush to get in. The more you block, the higher your score goes. Once one passes him, the fans rush the stage and take the band's instruments. You replay again the same mini-games but they are quicker and more difficult.

From Mobygames.com. Original Entry